Eisenhower Ranks #1

In California For Joint Replacement

LEFT TO RIGHT: G. Aubrey Serfling, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Eisenhower Medical Center; Stephen J. O’Connell, Orthopedic Surgeon; and Mary
Sweet, Representative, HealthGrades. 238HealthGrades®, the nation’s leading independent health care ratings organization, has ranked Eisenhower Medical Center as the number one hospital in California for Joint Replacement in 2010. In addition to announcing Eisenhower’s number one ranking, HealthGrades also awarded Eisenhower the HealthGrades Joint Replacement Excellence Award™, placing it in the top five percent in the nation for joint replacement. The recognition, which Eisenhower has now received for three consecutive years, is based on HealthGrades’ twelfth annual Hospital Quality in America study, which analyzes patient outcomes at nearly all of the nation’s hospitals.

“Our continual commitment to excellence and to passionate patient care enables us to excel and achieve the results that gain such a special recognition,” said G. Aubrey Serfling, President and Chief Executive Officer, Eisenhower Medical Center, upon receiving news of the award. “Our dedicated physicians, nurses and staff work together to provide our patients with the highestquality joint replacement care possible, and to be recognized by HealthGrades for a third consecutive year proves that we are on the right path.”

In addition to HealthGrades’ Joint Replacement Excellence Award, Eisenhower has received fivestar ratings from HealthGrades in multiple areas, including Valve Replacement Surgery, Treatment of Heart Failure, Total Knee Replacement, Total Hip Replacement, Gastrointestinal Surgery, and Treatment of Stroke. In 2009, Eisenhower also received the prestigious HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award™, rating it among the top five percent of hospitals in the nation for patient safety. Eisenhower was the only hospital in the Coachella Valley, and one of only 11 hospitals in California, to receive the Patient Safety Award in 2009.

““Our continual
commitment to
excellence and to
passionate patient care
enables us to excel and
achieve the results that
gain such a special
recognition,”
said G. Aubrey Serfling,
President and Chief
Executive Officer,
Eisenhower
Medical Center.”

The HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America study is the largest annual report of its kind, analyzing patient outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 5,000 nonfederal hospitals from 2006, 2007 and 2008. HealthGrades’ hospital ratings and awards reflect the track record of patient outcomes at hospitals in the form of mortality and complication rates. HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government. No hospital can opt to be rated or not to be rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.

For 28 specific procedures and treatments, such as joint replacement, HealthGrades determines star ratings that reflect the mortality and complication rates for each category of care. Hospitals receiving a five-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are significantly below the national average. In the area of orthopedics, the HealthGrades study found that across all orthopedic procedures in which complications were studied, there was a 61.2 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more in-hospital complications in a five-star rated hospital compared to the United States hospital average. The study also found that if all hospitals performed at the level of a five-star rated hospital, 110,687 orthopedic in-hospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients over the three years studied.